Steven Brust is the author of twenty-six novels so far, with his most popular following the assassin Vlad Taltos (starting with the novel Jhereg). His most recent novel, The Incrementalists, is a collaboration with author Skyler White. Steven is also a member of the Pre-Joycean Fellowship, a group of writers who value 19th-century values of … Read more
This article is by K.M. Weiland. “Plot vs. character”—we hear it all the time, as if the two were mutually exclusive. Either your book is plot-driven or character-driven. Can’t possibly be both, right? And anytime we run afoul of an either/or conundrum, you gotta know people are going to start believing one or the other … Read more
This article is written by Ken Hughes. What do sports brackets have to do with writing a story? Almost everything. A plot depends on conflict and contrast between its characters, and on building interest in them over time. A tournament’s system is about matching opponents together and tracking how that changes. It’s one of the … Read more
Writer and director Eric Luke has worked on films for Paramount, Disney, and Fox TV. He’s the writer of the science-fiction cult classic Explorers, which starred Ethan Hawke and the late River Phoenix. I recently chatted with Eric about story development and narrative structure, as well as his latest project, the self-aware audiobook Interference. How … Read more
This article is by Nathan Lauffer and Kevin Spencer. We are all, to varying extents, seekers after truth. I’m certain we are hard wired for it. Humans are all philosophers, who vary only in the questions they ask. Over the years, I’ve become fascinated with stories that operate in worlds whose mythology, or at least … Read more
This article is by Dr John Yeoman. Every plot is a cliché, isn’t it? According to Christopher Booker, there have been only seven basic plots since the dawn of story telling, although Georges Polti expanded the total to 36. No good plot is original because successful stories evoke one or more of the Seven Deadly … Read more
This article is by Bets Davies. I’m a character girl. The question becomes inevitable when you have a novel in your head: Where to start? I used to plunge into a rambling first draft with inconsistencies, reams I had to cut out and reams I had to fit in. Then there are outliners. Plot every … Read more
Recently a feud of sorts has developed between George R.R. Martin, author of A Game of Thrones, and Damon Lindelof, the mastermind behind Lost. When Martin was asked if he felt nervous about ending his series, he answered that he feared “pulling a Lost.” When Lindelof learned of this interview, he lashed out on Twitter, … Read more